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散見簡牘合輯‧湖北鄂城泥廠一號墓木刺

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Text ID
KR2p0129
Date
300–420
Dynasty
晉

Sǎn Jiàn Jiǎndú Héjí‧Húběi Échéng Nícháng Yī Hào Mù Mùcì 散見簡牘合輯‧湖北鄂城泥廠一號墓木刺

Collected Scattered Documents — Wooden Name-Cards from Tomb no. 1 at Nícháng, Échéng, Hubei

(anonymous; funerary visiting-cards)

About the work

A set of wooden name-cards (mùcì 木刺, also written 木刺) from tomb no. 1 at the Nícháng 泥廠 site, Échéng 鄂城 (modern Ézhōu 鄂州), Hubei Province. The tomb is dated to the Eastern Jin dynasty (317–420 CE) on archaeological grounds. The cards are funerary visiting-cards (míngcì 名刺 / bài tiē 拜帖) placed in the tomb in lieu of — or alongside — actual social calls made to the deceased. Published in KR2p 散見簡牘合輯 (Sǎn Jiàn Jiǎndú Héjí), Institute of History, Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, 1990.

Abstract

The source text preserves five nearly identical wooden name-cards. Each card bears the formula used for a formal call of greeting:

廣陵史綽再拜 / 問起居

“Shǐ Chuò 史綽 of Guǎnglíng 廣陵, [presents] two prostrations / and inquires after [your] health.”

Two of the five cards append a second line identifying the sender’s home commandery and style-name:

廣陵史綽再拜 / 問起居 / 廣陵高郵字澆瑜

“Shǐ Chuò of Guǎnglíng, [presents] two prostrations / and inquires after [your] health / [native place] Gāoyóu 高郵 in Guǎnglíng, style-name (zì 字) Jiāoyú 澆瑜.”

One further variant card identifies the sender as “童子史綽” (Tóngzǐ Shǐ Chuò), suggesting Shǐ Chuò was a young man of relatively junior social status at the time the cards were made (or at the time of the tomb occupant’s death). The formula tóngzǐ 童子 (“youth / boy”) placed before the name in a visiting-card context typically indicates the sender was below the age of capping (i.e., not yet 20), or that he wished to emphasize his junior and respectful position vis-à-vis the deceased.

The name-cards thus attest to a man named Shǐ Chuò 史綽, native of Gāoyóu 高郵 in Guǎnglíng commandery 廣陵郡 (in present-day Jiangsu), with the style-name Jiāoyú 澆瑜, who placed multiple visiting-cards in this Jin tomb as an expression of condolence or as part of funerary ritual. Whether Shǐ Chuò was the tomb occupant’s social peer, a student, or a subordinate official cannot be determined from the cards alone.

Burial context. Échéng 鄂城 (Ézhōu) in Hubei lay in the hinterland of the Eastern Jin sphere and was a significant regional centre. The practice of placing mùcì 木刺 in tombs — essentially the tomb equivalent of leaving one’s calling card — is well attested in Jin and Southern Dynasties tombs, particularly in the Yangzi valley. The cards functioned both as a record of social relationships and as a ritual surrogate for personal attendance at the funeral. Gāoyóu 高郵, the stated home of Shǐ Chuò, is a county in Guǎnglíng (modern Jiangsu), indicating the deceased had social connections across the eastern Yangzi region.

Document type. These cards represent the mùcì 木刺 (wooden visiting-card) tradition, the forerunner of the later paper míngtiě 名帖. The standard formula — personal name + zài bài 再拜 (“two prostrations”) + wèn qǐjū 問起居 (“inquiry after health”) — is identical to that on visiting cards found in other Jin and early Southern Dynasties tombs (cf. the Nanchang Jin tomb cards in KR2p0130 and KR2p0131). The inclusion of native place (Guǎnglíng) and style-name (Jiāoyú) on some cards follows the full formal conventions of the period.

Translations and research

  • 中國社會科學院歷史研究所, 《散見簡牘合輯》, 文物出版社, 1990 — editio princeps.
  • 胡平生、馬月華, 《簡牘檢署考校注》, 上海古籍出版社, 2008 — includes discussion of Jin-period name-card conventions.
  • Richter, Antje. Letters and Epistolary Culture in Early Medieval China. University of Washington Press, 2013 — general context for visiting-card etiquette and funerary calling practices in the Jin period.

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